Development of efficacious anti-bacterial skin cleansing products has been limited by the availability of a pre-clinical (in vitro) method to predict clinical efficacy adequately. We report a simple and rapid method, designated as rapid agar plate assay (RAPA), that uses the bacteriological agar surface as a surrogate substrate for skin and combines elements of two widely used in vivo (clinical) methods (Agar Patch and Cup Scrub). To simulate the washing of the human hand or forearm skin with the test product, trypticase soy agar plates were directly washed with the test product and rinsed under running tap water. After air-drying the washed plates, test bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus or Escherichia coli) were applied and the plates were incubated at 37 degrees C for 18-24 h. Using S. aureus as the test organism, anti-bacterial bar soap containing triclocarbanilide showed a strong linear relationship (R(2) = 0.97) between bacterial dose and their per cent reduction. A similar dose-response relationship (R(2) = 0.96) was observed for anti-bacterial liquid hand soap against E. coli. RAPA was able to distinguish between anti-bacterial products based on the nature and level of actives in them. In limited comparative tests, results obtained by RAPA were comparable with the results obtained by clinical agar patch and clinical cup scrub methods. In conclusion, RAPA provides a simple, rugged and reproducible in vitro method for testing the relative efficacy of anti-bacterial skin cleansing products with a likelihood of comparable clinical efficacy. Further testing is warranted to improve the clinical predictability of this method.